I bought a new house 9 months ago that has been empty for 4 years….This place was really over grown, as the last family that lived here had gotten really old and with no help for yard work this was a foresst wasteland…to give you idea…when I cut down the 5 ft grass in the backyard I found a 14 ft fiberglass John boat!!!

Needless to say there are a lot of old Oaks, Maples, Walnuts, Cedars, and Cherry trees growing all over the yard…most in really bad shape from years of non-care and weathering…These trees were also nearing the end of there life spans as they were planted almost 150 years ago according to the village hall. I called my buddy who helps me with my landscaping work and asked him to comeover and cut it all down! Well after 6 months of work and organizing all the logistics…it is all down!!! I have almost 20k bd/ft of Red Oak, and a few thousand bd/ft of the other species of trees EACH! I even ended up with 8, 3 ft tall sections that measure over 5 ft in diameter. I am never going to use all this wood and am looking to sell it…I know what the boards go for…but I can’t find anything on slabs! If interested in buying any green boards, wel will be milling them in the next 2 weeks and are currently slabbing the 8 large sections into 18/4 slabs anywhere from 3 to 5 and a half ft in diameter…In box me for any inquiries!

Get ready to wait a long time if you plan on selling finished slabs. I cut slabs with my chainsaw and the general rule is 1 year of careful air drying for each inch of thickness. If it’s a wide slab (I have some 3-5’ wide slabs), it can take even longer.

Not only that, they have a high tendency to check and crack and warp even with stickered and stacked.

Be prepared for a lot of it to become firewood.

I would love to have a stack of trees like that laying around though. Looks like even if a lot of it is burned, you’ll still have a couple of decades worth of project wood to build with.

Lucky devil I wish I owned some of that beautiful wood.I once bought a flat and found the elderly woman who had died and used to own the flat had a walking stick sword behind the front door I swapped it for a load of good quality plywood.So we all win.I was told if I had bought it a few days earlier I could have had all the furniture which her 83 year old brother had burned in the back yard as he thought know one would want it. Sad day really.keep well my friend . Alistair

Randy, that may or may not be an ideal place, but it’s better than most. The most important thing is to get them out of direct sunlight and definitely away from moisture. It’s usually good to get them off the ground too (6+ inches).

Just make sure you cut the slabs for the particular types of wood you have. Some woods act unpredictably when cut certain ways.

Usually the longer you can can leave them in log form the better (this is up for debate), but in log form it takes a LONG time for them to dry and it can be really hard on the cutting tools.

Good luck with it man. I love having my own custom cut boards and slabs, but it is a pain to wait for them to dry and cut pieces somedays when all you want to do is build.

The oak will dry too fast in the greenhouse which will cause it to split, check, and possibly honeycomb. Stickered outside under an open shed would be better for the first 4 – 6 months for 4/4 thick lumber, then you can put it in the greenhouse.